A LARGS businesswoman told how she was left 'sickened' after energy bosses sent her a botched bill demanding she hand over £16,000.

Kirsty Moore, 50, who runs a holiday let in the town as well as the 1816 Property Finders company, was sent correspondence from supplier E.ON asking for the eye-watering sum - before later admitting she was actually in CREDIT.

The energy company have now apologised for the error, but Kirsty says she was left in a state of shock when the initial demand dropped into her inbox.

She said: “After submitting recent meter readings, I received an email saying that I was £16,079 in the red.

“Cleary getting this email from the energy company was a shock and left me feeling completely stunned and sick to be honest.

“We have a holiday let and a big old house linked together, but even with all the price increases I thought surely it couldn’t be right.

“Whilst our holiday let is heated we haven’t had our heating on in the main house since March earlier this year.”

Kirsty says that despite having her account recalculated, she wanted to speak out to make sure other people question any exorbitant energy bills that may land.

She explained: “After querying it, I got a simple email apologising and informing me there had been a mistake that led to the higher calculation and that our balance was in fact £231 in credit.

“A £16,000 deficit isn’t a small clerical error, and I don’t think the firm appreciated the impact their email had.

“My concern is this could be happening to other less able people or the elderly who may not challenge unusually high bills because of the coverage around rising energy prices.

“In this climate, with gas and electricity charges increasing so quickly, people could easily be paying more than they should.”

Kirsty admits that her first thought after receiving the bill was to sell her house as she believed she could no longer afford to run it.

She added: “That was went through my mind because I was flabbergasted at how much things had gone up. People should be made aware and have the confidence to challenge their bills, even in this climate.

“Utility companies should do more that offer an email with a one paragraph apologise for a £16,000 bill that will send people into a total panic and affect their physical and mental health.

“My initial thought was that we were going to have to sell the house."

A spokesperson for E.ON said: “We am very sorry for this and all the stress it brought the customer. There was an error that led to that high charge, but this was quickly rectified and an accurate and up to date bill provided.”